A Crowd of Cousins

Chapters 18-21

We’ve passed over the next twelve years of life on the moors, during which it appears that those at Wuthering Heights and those at the Grange never meet. Nelly calls it "the happiest time of her life." which would be a far greater acolade were it not for the black cloud of death and despair which had, prior to, hung over them all.

Now we’re onto the descendants’ part of the novel. Get ready for Little Cathy and Little Linton. Little Cathy appears to have inherited some of her mother’s good qualities and yet, like everyone in this book, is possessed with her share of faults: notably being “saucy.”

Little Cathy's childhood is spent in stark contrast to that of her namesake. Linton, fearing that something might happen to her, like accidentally stumbling across Wuthering Heights or her relations over there, has kept her cloistered and cooped up. Surprisingly this is an entirely unsuccessful juncture. Whilst Linton is called away to Isabella's deathbed, to say goodbye and collect his nephew and Heathcliff's son, Little Cathy is bounding over the hills and dale like a telletubby and straight into Hareton's path. Their encounter is a bit ridiculous: dogs are attacked, (dogs play a rather large role in this novel…) there's blood, crying, and hysterics from Cathy when she discovers that Hareton is her cousin - such horror.

Her other cousin arrives soon after, pale and polar opposite to his father in every way possible. He seems to be a bit of a wimp and wants to drink milk all the time. That doesn't stop Heathcliff from snatching him from the Grange and hiding him away.

We skip another two years until the cousins all meet again. Once more it’s due to Little Cathy's bounding across fields and straight into Hareton, this time accompanied by Heathcliff. Shortly after he reveals to Nelly his whole scheme, getting the cousins (his son and Linton’s daughter) to fall in love and therefore attaching his family to the Earnshaws and the Lintons, not to mention ensuring that he would be heir to everything – he’s basically counting down the days till his son’s death. Charming.

I’ve just gone back to the beginning of the novel and reread Lockwood’s second visit to Wuthering Heights where he meets Little Cathy (although he doesn’t know who she is) who has been widowed after marrying Linton. Hareton was also there and as uncommunicative then as he is now. It’s sad actually, although Little Cathy is every bit as irritating as her mother it’s still depressing to have had that picture of her painted already – dejected and sitting alone in front of the fire, practically spitting at anyone who comes near her.

Chapter 21 details how Little Cathy and Little Linton bond over making fun of Hareton’s inability to read (a lovely pair indeed) and then start an illicit romance conducted through notes delivered by the milkboy. Nelly burns the letters as soon as she discovers them. You’d have thought she’d have learned that keeping teenage lovers apart isn’t always the most successful course of action, but no, she has not. I’m not surprised at this budding romance, given that there seems to be only two families in the whole of Yorkshire at the time. No variety in names nor in potential spouses it appears.

Reading about the second generation of Cathys and Lintons is quite strange at times; especially because all of the young folk are unaware of the weighty history that’s hanging above them. I’m actually enjoying the interweaving storylines now – maybe because I know more than the characters do. Who knows, maybe I’ll even end up liking the book after all….

Unlikely.